Engine Punk

I'd never seen one of these before. I saw it on the industrial estate at Doublebois just up from Adrian Booth's workshop and didn't know what it was, so just had to find out. And after a deal of scrabbling about, I managed to identify it as a Honda S-MX. If you wanted a cube on wheels with an automatic box and fold down futon-style beds inside then this is the car for you. It's a good example of the kind of speciality cars the Japanese do so well. Any other car producing nation would never even try something like this. "Oh no they would say, there'd never be any call for something like that." So despite the slush box, I start to like it because of the odd niche that it's aimed at. There's a kind of "can-do" approach that the designers have followed and I like that. I was dropping an A series cylinder head off at Adrian's to be reconditioned and he said there was a whole set of camping gear available as standard from the factory w...

Remember when the future was good ? A Vintage Thing? Or not a Vintage Thing? That is the question. The best Vintage Things are obvious. They are high performance cars and motorbikes that are either rare or look great, an engineer or designer's dream come true. It's a very simple definition but occasionally I like something just because it's odd. And I'm often surprised by what I stumble across and get enthusiastic about. And some of the Vintage Things have been dangerously close to the kinds of vehicles I have come to despise. See what doesn't make a Vintage Thing. what doesn't make a Vintage Thing. During my teens, I went through a passing phase of drawing multi-purpose vehicles. I drew them everywhere and got into trouble at school for doing so. I didn't break windows or smoke, I just filled my rough book with drawings. At the time, I felt particularly inspired by buses and coach designs from the 1950s and early 60s. I was exploring a different...

Looking back at the machinery that has been featured on this blog as a Vintage Thing, I am rather surprised about the variety. When I started out on my enthusiastic ramblings, I thought high performance cars and motor bikes made by blokes in sheds would make up the vast majority of entries. I did not anticipate the numbers of four-wheel-drive trucks that have sneaked in under the radar. There have even been commercial vehicles - one with only three wheels and all the naff-ness that implies - and even some military vehicles. What's been going on? On reconsidering them all I can see that they remain worthy of the title Vintage Thing. For some reason, I like them. The original intention was to feature Vintage Things that were distinctly esoteric and not featured widely elsewhere on the Internet. I didn't expect to see much in the way of mass-produced vehicles, or 4x4s or commercial vehicles because what interests me most of all are specials, those rare creations made by so...